THE PINK HAND 297 



and there can be no doubt that the intercourse 

 which took place between them and the indigenous 

 tribes during this prolonged period must have had a 

 very considerable effect upon the colour of the tribes 

 as a whole ; and this view of the question is greatly 

 supported by the much nearer approach to blackness 

 observable in the people lying more to the north and 

 westward, who came but rarely into contact with 

 persons of pale complexion. Thus, certain dwellers 

 in Nyasaland who inhabit the shores of Lake 

 Shirwa and the course of the Lurio River, as well 

 as others from the basin of the Luapula, are 

 perhaps among the blackest I remember to have 

 seen. The curious pink of the inside of the hands 

 and on the soles of the feet is accounted for among 

 some of the Zambezi people by the superstition 

 that, when the first black man was made, the 

 Creator had completed his colouring so far as it 

 now extends when he was called away to eat, and 

 forgot to finish it. 



I should consider the average height of the 

 natives of this part of Africa would probably 

 be about 5 ft. 7 in. Many cases of considerably 

 greater stature are, of course, common, but I 

 should be inclined to look upon that named as the 

 mean. The chest measurement for that height is 

 probably about 34 in. A good medium height 

 measurement for the women would perhaps be 

 5 ft. 1 in. 



Of striking negroid appearance, all the local 

 tribes display the same well-known type of features, 

 with its projecting forehead, doKcocephalic craneal 

 formation, short, wide nose, spreading at the nostril 



